female buffalo head died what happend?

[rocketboy]

well i just found my female buffalo head dead . about a week ago i noticed that she wasn't eating at all and wouldn't come out of the cave , which i thought  was normal due to that fact that her and her mate were spawning. as i took her out of the tank i notice eggs coming out of her. so i have a few questions as follows

1) is it normal for the female not to eat during spawning?
2) are the eggs furtalized?
3) could the spawning led to her demise, and if not
4) any clue to what caused it?
5) i was told when buffalos pair up they stay together for life,so is there any chance of the male making another pair?

all my paramiters are good i just just checked them.
thanks for any help in advance

Adam

[PoisonJello]

yes
yes
yes
no
yes

I hope that covered all your questions 

[dpatte]

Its very bizarre!

Maybe there was alot of aggression at breeding time?

Are there eggs? If so the male may take care of the fry themselves.

[rocketboy]

i know and it would have been my first breeding pair!!!

i really didn't notice much aggression at all towards the female, only to every other fish near the cave.

there wasn't any eggs laid (as far as i know). upon taking her out i noticed a few eggs still attached and her belly was still REALLY fat. the eggs were about 1mm and yellowish, from what i read is that their eggs are fairly big at about 3mm. maybe she couldn't handle that many eggs???

[Woody]

Adam

It sounds like they have not finalized the pairing ritual, the female was ready, hence the eggs, but the male was not ready for breeding, I see a lot of this with riverine cichlids from Africa. It usually takes a couple of spawns with pair bonding cichlids for the bond to solidify.

To answer your questions

1) is it normal for the female not to eat during spawning?
The females are ravenous during the egg development stage, they need extra protein to make the eggs, so they will eat more, often rushing to get the food, the male may be over protective at this time and minor clashes can occur, she sees you as a food source, he sees you as competition.

2) are the eggs furtalized?
Sadly no, there is no internal fertilization as their are in other egg laying species of catfish but that is another topic

3) could the spawning led to her demise, and if not
4) any clue to what caused it?
If the pair was young, the male may be too immature to know what to do exactly and he was too hard on her advances, or she was pushing him to pair bond and he was not ready or interested.
That is the major reason why it is suggested to get a good group of young cichlids and grow them out together, I myself usually try to get a dozen and grow them out, they have their chooses of mates and you can end up with many pairs, then sell or auction off the extras.

5) i was told when buffalos pair up they stay together for life,so is there any chance of the male making another pair?
I would have to be honest here and it is a touchy siutation, did they really pair bond. Yes buffaloheads do pair bond for life, but if it was not set in stone, you can try adding a couple of females. Since you know the male can be brutual, I would add a few dither fish, danios or tetras work fine for this, they are fast, stay in the upper water column and will not be damaged by the males aggression. As babblefish stated in another topic stay away from rasboras and barbs as they can harass your buffaloheads.
He will, if still young, try to bond with one of the females of his fancy and his aggression will be directed towards the school above him.

I would give it a try, Maybe Dpatte can give you some advise on selecting females of the species.  Dave  any wisdom please.

Please keep us posted on your trials as I myself would be interested in the results.

Woody